The present invention relates to a poultry cage system and in particular to a cage system with a controlled feeder.
Poultry cage systems conventionally utilize chain conveyors for conveying feed through feeder troughs to feed the poultry in the cages. Such chain conveyors and feeder trough systems customarily are mounted along the sides of a row of poultry cages.
Such feeding systems are particularly useful since the conveyor allows substantial automation of the feeding process.
In controlled raising of poultry, it is highly desirable to monitor the amount of food intake of each animal being raised. Since most conventional conveyor systems move feed down a trough which is aligned next to a substantial number of cages, one problem which occurs using such conveying systems is that the birds whose cages are nearest the source of feed being supplied along the conveyor, have an opportunity to eat feed from the conveyor, as the conveyor moves along. Thus, birds further down the conveyor feed trough system do not receive their allocated food supply while the nearer birds receive greater than their allocated supply.
Because of the necessity of the close control of food intake per bird to maximize feeding economics, such conveyor feeder trough systems are wasteful.